It has been routine practice for researchers and inventors working within a technical research organization to record experimental data and results onto the pages of bound laboratory notebooks. Each of these pages is signed, dated and witnessed and is evidence as to when the work was done in any legal proceeding. Typically each notebook within an organization would have its own volume number and each page for recording data within the notebook would have printed thereon both the volume number and its own page number. Usually each page will have printed legends to indicate the desired location for the researcher to write a subject title and/or project number and date, to record data and to sign his name as the person who performed the work. A signature and date line for a witness who has reviwed the recorded data is also provided.
Typically these notebooks are provided with dual pagination such that two adjacent pages are essentially identical with respect to their printed format and page number. The top page of each set of identically numbered pages is intended to be written on directly and to be permanently maintained in the bound volume. The bottom page of each set will receive duplicate information via the use of carbon paper or pressure-sensitive, carbonless copying materials which are coated onto the pages. Various systems for providing for carbonless recording paper are known in the art, as exemplified by U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,016,308 and 3,429,827. These bottom pages are preferably detachable from the bound volume by means of a line of perforations and are suitable for filing in project folders or elsewhere where it would be useful to have a copy of the orginal data available.
It has now become quite common for researchers to utilize personal computers to record, tabulate and/or store information such as experimental data. These researchers have heretofore still been required to write onto laboratory notebook pages information which is stored within the computer and which may already be present on computer printout sheets.